Florida Powerboat Club Back In Action With Upcoming Emerald Coast Powerboat Week

Volcano-hot and lava-sticky, Florida summers don’t lend themselves to go-fast boating events. So for Pompano Beach-based Florida Powerboat Club head Stu Jones, summer presents a vacation of sorts, an opportunity spend time with his family and friends and regroup before his workload ramps up again, starting with the club’s Emerald Coast Powerboat Week set for September 22-25.

Emerald Coast Powerboat Week kicks off the busy season for the Florida Powerboat Club. Photos courtesy/copyright of the Florida Powerboat Club.

With three weeks remaining before the 30th annual event begins, 80 club members have registered. The event can handle more than 100 entries, according to Jones.

“Current registration numbers are right on par with our expectations,” he explained. “And with the time remaining, we could see another 10 or 15 registrations that will put us just under 100 boats, which is perfect for this event.

“Once again we see strong representation from the FPC’s manufacturing sponsors including Cigarette, Concept Boats, Deep Impact, Fountain, Midnight Express and Nor-Tech,” he added.

Jeff Hoefling and Audra Meyer traveled from Evansville, Ind., to enjoy last year’s Emerald Coast event.

Following the traditional Friday fun run, the 120-mile, eight-stop Saturday poker run will travel a course from Sandestin to Pensacola Beach. Off-the-water activities include nightly parties in addition to the Saturday evening award ceremony within walking distance of the event’s Emerald Grand Resort host venue.

“I remember visiting the Emerald Coast for the first time in the late 1990s and from that point on we returned every summer,” said Jones. “The Emerald Coast is unique in so many ways compared to the rest of Florida and should be on everyone’s boating bucket-list. We always have a fantastic time here, and it’s always enjoyable to leave some money in town for a variety of youth-driven and animal rescue charities—a tradition we have kept going since the early days of this event.”